Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Amanda Congdon is leaving Rocketboom.  

A statement is posted at Rocketboom.com. 

Instead of stressing out over Rocketboom, watch a few Ze Franks. They may make you happy.  

Jason Calacanis has an offer for Amanda.  

New header graphic. Andrew Baron and Amanda Congdon at Katz's Deli in NYC on April 17. 

Technorati query for Amanda's announcement. 

09/09/05: "I'm a young Republican."  

Dare Obasanjo: "A developer using Python or Perl is likely more at home dealing with XML-RPC than using SOAP." 

AP: "Kenneth Lay, founder and vilified former chairman of scandal-ridden Enron Corp, died of a heart attack Wednesday morning. He was 64." 

Chuck Shotton has a Deadwood-themed ringtone on his cell phone. Warning, it's not office-safe.  

Don Park: "Bring on the Parks." 

What we know and don't know about Amanda, Andrew and Rocketboom 

Nowhere in Amanda's video does she say she was fired.

Here's what she does say:

"I'm not on vacation."

"I have apparently been unboomed."

"Andrew Baron is no longer interested in being my partner."

She's good at pulling the heart strings, but her video is short on actual information.

Yet many of the bloggers covering the event say she was fired.

Huh?

Based on what?

She says she wants to be transparent, but her video is anything but.

I've been talking with Andrew Baron about this for a few weeks now, since my trip back east between Vloggercon and BloggerCon on June 17. I've read some of the correspondence between them, and from my perspective, it's totally unfair to say that Amanda was fired. She says Andrew was no longer interested in being her partner, but that contradicts everything I've heard Andrew say. Amanda is not an authority on what Andrew is interested in.

I'm pretty sure Amanda wanted to take the show to Los Angeles and leave Andrew and the rest of the people at Rocketboom behind. It's not clear whether she was going to pay Andrew (he hasn't been drawing a salary, while Amanda has) or if she had offered to buy him out.

It's also not clear what Andrew did to cause Amanda to do the video, or if Andrew actually did anything to cause her to do the video. Her video didn't really say anything other than she wasn't going to be doing Rocketboom. It certainly didn't explain why. The reporting by the blogosphere so far has been pretty one-sided and totally shoddy and unfair.

Disclaimer: I don't own any Rocketboom stock, and have no interest in the outcome other than I am generally supportive of both Amanda and Andrew, and the video blogging art, business and community. I thought they were a good team, I enjoy their work, and I hope both get a chance to profit from their success. I still hold hope that they can patch things up and work together again.